Chapter 3

"Alright," I said, nodding.

Percy beamed with joy. After planting a kiss on my cheek, he took my hand.

"How about we go plan for the wedding now? The one that got ruined doesn't count. This time I'll throw you an even bigger and better one to make up for everything."

Perhaps because I had been wound so tightly just moments before, the exhaustion now came flooding over me all at once. And I didn't take in a single word of what Percy said after that.

That evening, he slid his phone toward me.

"Ines, look. I've already removed Carlene from everything. She won't bother us anymore."

His tone was bright, with an earnestness in his words that seemed to be seeking praise.

After that, Carlene truly never appeared again.

Meanwhile, Percy was even more attentive to me than before, as if he were dead set on making it up to me.

It was also during this time that I found out I was pregnant.

The day Percy learned I was pregnant, his hand was trembling as he held the lab result. Before I could even react, he scooped me up and spun me around.

"We need to move the wedding up! Ines, I'm not going to make you wait any longer."

My heart gradually settled down as well, and I stopped thinking about his toxic rivalry with Carlene.

But while I was cleaning the room one day, I found a shredded shirt in Percy's closet, and lying in the trash can was a project contract scribbled all over beyond recognition.

With unease gnawing at me, I called Tristan Armstrong.

"How's the lawsuit against Carlene going?"

There was a beat of stunned silence on the other end. "Huh? Lawsuit against who?"

In an instant, all the blood had drained from my body, and my ears began ringing. Even my grip on the phone went slack.

However, Tristan kept talking. "I know you're upset that Carlene ruined your wedding, but she's always been like this. You'll get used to it."

Before I could get a word in, he went on rambling about the past.

"To be honest, Percy and Carlene almost got together once. Then, she started dating someone just to spite him, and Percy wasn't about to take that lying down. And that's how the two of them got into this whole rivalry."

I stood there with my phone pressed to my ear, my fingers ice-cold and trembling. As I listened to the past that I had never known, the absurdity hit me like a slap in the face.

It turned out all that hostility between them really was just old sparks from their flirting.

As if realizing he'd said too much, Tristan changed tack. "But that's all in the past. Percy's about to marry you now, and he only has eyes for you. So, don't overthink it."

His attempts at damage control only stung more, as if he were scrambling to cover something up.

I couldn't bear to listen anymore and hung up.

A warm weight settled over my shoulders as a jacket fell across my back. Percy's voice came from above my head.

"Why are you dressed so lightly? Tomorrow's our wedding. What if you catch a cold?"

As he spoke, he hugged me from behind, his chin resting gently on the top of my head. His warm breath tickled my neck, and he sounded excited as he said, "Ines, I'm so happy. Tomorrow you'll finally be my wife."

This familiar embrace should have put my heart at ease. But those honeyed words left me cold, like I was submerged in ice water.

I bottled up my gloom and made it through the next morning.

I got into the wedding car. Halfway there, a violent impact slammed into us from behind.

The driver, Gerry Dudley, slapped the steering wheel in anger.

"The car's totaled! How are we even supposed to get to the wedding now?"

I had barely recovered when I turned my head and saw Carlene stepping out of the car behind us.

Before anyone could react, she walked over to our wedding car. She raised her arm, then dragged the tip of her key viciously down the car. A deep scratch tore across the white paint in an instant.